Ludhiana, April 13
Charity begins at home, goes an adage. But for the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation this does not hold true considering the discharging of its slaughterhouse waste down the sewer that finally empties into the Budda Nullah.

The MC has been under fire for throwing sewage into the nullah but it had been passing the blame to the industrial units, holding them largely responsible for the mess that the Budda Nullah is.

While the MC has enforced stringent laws for various hospitals handling bio-medical waste, it does not bother to make some arrangements for discharging blood and other body fluids of the slaughtered animals. The floors are washed everyday after slaughter and the discharge is thrown into the sewers that finally go to Budda Nullah.

The nullah recharges groundwater in many villages lining the water body and villagers use the underground water for drinking purposes. Moreover, the nullah finally merges with the Sutlej river which is a source of water for the Harike wetlands, from where fish is supplied to faraway places. The wildlife in the area also depends on this water which has toxic levels of various pollutants.

During a visit to the slaughterhouse this morning, blood of large animals was found spilled around on the floor. Later it was washed away with a heavy flow of water by the attendants and it was discharged down the drain.

An attendant, on the condition of anonymity, told The Tribune that they had no guidelines on discharging the waste of animal material and they were just washing it. He added that they had been doing it for years.

While the Pollution Control Board has held the MC responsible for the condition of the water of sorrows, sources in the Wildlife Department said the local body was flouting the Wildlife Protection Act also. Under the Act, nobody can throw waste that can be detrimental for the health of wild animals and Budda Nullah was directly related to Harike Wetlands.

Not only the MC's slaughterhouse, waste of small butcheries running illegally in the city under the MC authorities’ nose is also thrown in the nullah. Several meat sellers sit on the banks of the nullah every evening at different points. The animal remains are finally dumped into the water body everyday.

Ludhiana, April 13
The Delimitation Committee that met here today sent two maps, demarcating delimitation of various wards, to the state government for notification.

One of the maps was prepared by the SAD-BJP councillors, while the other was prepared by the election wing of the local government. The SAD-BJP councillors had raised an objection to the official map during the last meeting, stating that it was far from reality.

At the second meeting of the committee today, attended by city mayor, Nahar Singh Gill, MLAs, Satpal Gosain, Harish Dhanda, Darshan Singh Shivalik and Harish Bedi, SAD and BJP councillors, Harbhajan Dang and Parvin Bansal, another councillors, Madan Lal Bagga, Surjit Singh Ahluwalia, commissioner, Vikas Partap, ADC Kamalpreet Brar and deputy director, local bodies, final nod was given to the proposed 75 wards in the city.

The committee had earlier agreed to send the map prepared by the opposition in the MC house, but Bagga and Ahluwalia raised an objection to it. Then the committee finally reached a consensus to send both maps, leaving the selection to the government.

The government would invite objections on the delimitation and finally the process would be notified.

Ludhiana, April 13
Starting from G.S. Sandhu, financial commissioner, development, who is holding the additional charge of the vice-chancellor, there are umpteen number of posts in the university where there are no regular appointments. The people manning these posts are holding them as additional charge(s) only. In several cases additional charges.

Dean, postgraduate studies, S.S. Chahal is holding the additional charges of the librarian and the controller of the examinations.

Dean, basic sciences, Tejwant Singh is holding the additional charge of director, students welfare, and director, sports.

Dean, College of Agricultural Engineering, V.R. Sharma is holding the additional charge of the university estate officer and that of the chief engineer of the university.

Coordinator, research, J.K. Sangha is holding the additional charge of the dean, College of Home Sciences.

Director, extension, M.S. Malhi is also holding the additional charge of the additional director, communication centre, and the information officer of the university.

There are several other vacant posts of various heads of department which are being held by others as the “additional charge” only.

University sources said since the vacant posts had not been filled for quite sometime, hence the people had been given additional charge and extra work.

The Punjab Agricultural University Teachers Association (PAUTA) president said, this was because of the financial crunch being faced by the university. The PAU is already running under a deficit of Rs 64 crore.

He said the state government was providing an annual grant of Rs 80 crore five years ago and it had not been enhanced although the expenditure had increased manifold.

The university is working already under a staff deficit of 22 per cent in both teaching as well as non-teaching departments. This has effected the research work also. New projects cannot be even thought of under current circumstances.

Ludhiana, April 13
The hearing on the anticipatory bail application filed by former president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee H.S. Hanspal in the City Centre scam case was today adjourned for April 16.

The bail application was taken up by the court of special judge Gurbir Singh where special public prosecutors apprised the court of the fact that the bail application was not fixed for arguments for today.

During the last hearing, the counsel for Hanspal had taken the adjournment with the plea that they wanted to move a application for getting some documents from the vigilance bureau. But no application was moved by them even today. Vigilance bureau officials told the court that they had not come prepared for addressing arguments, as the date was not fixed for arguments.

Then the hearing was adjourned for the next date. Apart from it the court also adjourned the hearing on the pre-arrest bail application moved by an accused, Capt Rajesh Singh.

However, lawyers for director of IPE company Amit Sardana of Delhi and Kamal Kumar Verma, director, special project, of the same company, strongly opposed the adjournment.

It was asserted by them that their clients were in jail since long, so their bail applications be heard. But the judge osberved that all bail applications would be taken up on the same day. So their bail applications were also adjourned for April 16.

The two accused were arrested in the case by the vigilance bureau on March 23. Since then they are in custody.

No other accused has been arrested in the case till today.

Though officials of the vigilance bureau had obtained the arrest warrants against former Punjab local bodies minister Chowdhry Jagjit Singh, Paramjit Singh Sibia, former chairman of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust, Capt Rajesh Singh, officials of controversial comapny Today Homes namely S.A.H. Nakvi, general manager (marketing), Sourav Gupta, assistant manager (marketing) and Sanjeev Kumar Gupta.

COMMUNITY

Beti Saneh Sanjivni Yatra arrives
Gurminder Singh Grewal

Khamano, April 13
The Beti Saneh Sanjivni Yatra, which started from Talwandi Sabo on March 26, reached here under the leadership of Swami Vishvambhar Ji from The Art of Living International.

The Swami was accompanied by Dr Dinesh Kanchan and Swat Batta, The Art of Living teachers, Pardeep Chaudhary, member of the Punjab apex body of The Art of Living, Farooque and Parminder Singh from the United Nations Population Fund.

The Art of Living Foundation, an international NGO working in 140 countries through its trust Vyakti Vikas Kendra, India, is carrying out a statewide campaign against the menace of female foeticide in Punjab. The campaign is in the form of the Beti Sneh Sanjivni Yatra. Dr Dinesh Kumar Kanchan addressed 700 children at Government Senior Secondary School, Khamano. A procession was taken out giving the message of peace and love.

Mandi Ahmedgarh, April 13
The Jagraon police has succeeded in identifying the kingpin of the gang that had robbed a commission agent of Rs 1.5 lakh after beating him with crude weapons at Abbupur village, near Sidhwan Bet, near here, yesterday.

The vehicle used in the crime has been recovered from his residence at Kothe Jiwe on the outskirts of Jagraon.

The leader of the gang which robbed cash and valuables from Suresh Kumar Garg of Gidderpindi at Abbupur yesterday has been identified as Balwant Singh, alias Banta, of Rasulpur village.

According to Shiv Kumar Verma, SSP, Jagraon, a joint team of the CIA, Jagraon, and police station, Jagraon, has seized the Esteem car (No HYA 40) that was used by the miscreants to rob the commission agent yesterday.

A tipoff by an informer paved way for the success of the investigating team, led by Dharam Pal, SHO, Sidhwan Bet, and Gagan Deep Singh, in charge, CIA, Jagraon.

Three miscreants had intercepted Suresh Kumar Garg, a commission agent of Gidder Pindi village, and snatched Rs 1.5 lakh and a mobile from him at 11 am yesterday.

Vijay Sharma SP (D), Bhupinder Singh, DSP, Jagraon, led by the SSP, had reached the spot and a joint team headed by Dharam Pal and Gagan Deep Singh was constituted after registering a case under sections 282, 323, 341 and 506 of the IPC.

Preliminary investigations had revealed that a group of notorious persons, including Banta, had been roaming in the area. The police focused its investigation around him and ultimately succeeded in recovering the vehicle from one of his premises.